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The two Morrow County elementary-school principals who failed to report possible sexual
misconduct at their school could face criminal charges, and could lose their educator’s licenses,
the Morrow County prosecutor said yesterday.

Deborah Knechtly and Shawn Winkelfoos, both principals at Highland Elementary School in the
Highland Local School District, have been on paid administrative leave since Oct. 19. They were
suspended because they knew that some of the school’s students might have been touched
inappropriately by a classmate but did nothing about it, Prosecutor Charles Howland said.

He said that the principals later said they did not know they were supposed to report it.

“Absolutely a charge is possible,” Howland said. “When an educator doesn’t report (abuse), you
just kind of want to ask, ‘Why didn’t you do that?’ ”

It’s about trust, he said: Society trusts teachers and principals to take care of the students
entrusted to them, and to watch out for those students’ best interests. And it’s in state law:
Educators are “mandatory reporters,” which means they are required to call the police or Children
Services if they hear about or see possible abuse.

But educators don’t always fulfill that obligation.

The State Board of Education does not keep statistics about how many educators fail to report
abuse of children, spokesman John Charlton said.

The board does track the number of educators who are investigated each year for conduct
unbecoming an educator, a catch-all category that can include everything from texting a student to
failing to report abuse, he said.

Last year, the state board investigated 754 such complaints, according to the board’s annual
report.That’s about 26 percent more than in 2010.

The state board has the option to revoke or suspend an educator’s license, but that process can
be lengthy.

In March 2005, a developmentally disabled 16-year-old girl said she was forced to perform oral
sex on two boys at Mifflin High School. The former principal, Regina Crenshaw, was fired in 2007.
But it wasn’t until September 2009 that the state board voted to permanently revoke Crenshaw’s
license.

The state board has other options. In Knechtly and Winkelfoos’ cases, for example, the board
could opt for a written reprimand or do nothing at all.

Any punishment that the state board would impose is separate from the legal system.

Howland said yesterday that he has not decided whether to pursue criminal charges against the
principals.